Rubber band power!
I used to own a 76 Golf. Fucking brilliant machine. Absolutely bulletproof. Well, it might have been, I never actually tested that bit.

Anyway, one evening after work, I was travelling down the Roseville side of the Roseville Bridge, which is ridiculously steep on that side. So much so, that a friend once clocked his bicycle speedo going down it, and it went to 100km/h. Anyway, part way down this hill, already doing 80, the spring on the carb which returned the car to idle speed broke, and I travelled down the rest of the hill, pedal literally to the metal.

After a fairly hair-raising ride to my destination (tends to happen when the lowest idle speed the car will do is 2500rpm), I popped the bonnet (hood for you Yanks), and checked out the scenario.

I happened to be working that day in a photo store, and whenever we got the underwater disposable cameras in to develop, I'd often hang on to the large thick rubber band which they had as a wrist strap. I happened to have one of those 'lacky bands with me that day.

So, with a little fiddling (oo-err!), I wound the rubber band round the 2 arms of the carb butterfly which the spring was previously attached to.

Result? Worked a dream. As good if not better than the original, and stayed on the car almost 9 months after that before I got a new spring. Which wasn't as good as the 'lacky.

Length? A little over 12", in a continuous rubber ring.
(David CopAFeel Used to be The_Elcat - Spouting crap since 1970., Sun 23 Aug 2009, 16:58, 5 replies)

Something about a car..?

( Dixipoos Bye Bye Blackbird, Sun 23 Aug 2009, 18:44, closed)

He was going quickly downhill
Then a spring appears to have broken.

He used a rubber band to replace the spring

The car worked fine after wards
( uberdeity Wondered why Owen Lars knew of the term "hell" on, Sun 23 Aug 2009, 21:41, closed)

I thought it was quite ingenious myself
and I'm surprised the heat of the engine bay didn't perish the rubber.

I yearn for the days when cars were that simple. Bring back manual carbs, coils and distributors, I say. Engines of that complexity could be fixed at the roadside (with rubber bands if need be). None of this £65 to get a diagnostic when it's blindingly obvious that it's leaking boost (in my more recent case...).

It's all the Government's fault. Actually it is, as nearly all of the complexity and weight that have been added to engines in the last couple of decades have been due to emissions legislation brought in for so-called environmental (read: to appease a large section of your voters) reason. Case in point is the EGR valve. These things gum up and shorten the life of the engine. Even better is direct injection petrol engines that will be lucky to make 100k miles because the absense of fuel washing the back of valves also causes them to clog up with carbon deposits. When this happens, they'll be beyond economical repair and the whole cycle starts again. More money is spent and more resources are consumed - defeating the politicans' original claims. Add in the short lifespan of electronics in such a harsh environment and the conclusion is that cars are rapidly become disposable. With devistating consequences on the environment. And they say that politicans can only see as far ahead as the next election...
(dxg, Sun 23 Aug 2009, 22:26, closed)

I was worried about perishing rubber too
But the wristband rubber bands seem to be made of some pretty stern stuff. Maybe the thickness of the rubber helped? Or maybe it wasn't entirely "natural" rubber, and the synthetic added helped?
(David CopAFeel Used to be The_Elcat - Spouting crap since 1970., Mon 24 Aug 2009, 9:17, closed)

Thank you
For the translation.

I think maybe I was a little tired when I wrote the entry.
(David CopAFeel Used to be The_Elcat - Spouting crap since 1970., Mon 24 Aug 2009, 9:15, closed)